Sunday, February 10, 2013

Issue #100- Some "Humor", MMSD's New Superintendent and WI Pensions

#100!!…

When I first decided to
write a blog I never imagined that I would ever write 100 posts, but here we
are celebrating Issue #100!!That this
post comes a week before the 2 year anniversary of the start of the "Wisconsin
Uprising" is another example of the reality that we aren't going to just
forget what is being done in the name of "reform" here in Wisconsin or anywhere
else for that matter.I am proud to be a
part of the resistance and proud to stand with my colleagues and friends to try
and make positive changes in our society, wherever possible.

I want to thank my wife, Sandy, for revising and
editing each week's edition.For those
of you who have waded through every page I've posted (and I know that there are
a lot of them) you can appreciate her dedication to the cause.Her support and suggestions make my writing
better.I also can't forget my sons who
have had to listen to me talk about political, social and economic issues
daily.They offer me insights into what
our youth think as well as assist me with my technological challenges.They are growing into advocates for social
justice as well.I also need to thank my
friends and union compatriots who provide me support, inspiration and share
information that helps guide my writing.

Thanks too, to all of you
who have read an issue."Open,
Forward, Thinking" has been viewed over 16,000 times in over 70 countries
on 6 continents (anyone know anyone in Antarctica?).I appreciate the feedback, pro and con, and
hope that my posts have help keep you all informed and given you ways to become
engaged in the struggle.While the fight
has been filled with challenges and is exhausting, I'm confident that we will
be able to continue until we achieve our goals.

For issue #100 I thought I
would take a trip into fiction by sharing a few articles that I would either
like, or fear, to see in the future.You
can judge for yourselves which are which.At the end of the post I also have some information about the search for
MMSD's superintendent position and some scary stuff about pensions.

Walker--"I
Made Some Huge Mistakes"…

In
a surprise press conference Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker announced that he
has had a change of heart regarding many of the policies his administration has
implemented during its first two years.As we near the two year anniversary of the introduction of the
controversial "Budget Repair Bill" or Act 10 attention is again
focused on the Governor's actions during that volatile time in February of
2011.Walker himself said, "It's
just like any milestone date, anniversary or the New Year.A time of reflection when you think back and
forward and try to see what you could do better or different."

Walker went on to talk about the virtual elimination of
collective bargaining for public employees and the cuts to education and
summarized by saying, "I made some huge mistakes and went way too
far."He deflected some of the
criticism away from himself and admitted that his administration thought that
the budget cuts and restrictions on rights would have been more widely popular
with Wisconsinites."My advisors
shared information from some trusted sources that said good things about what
we were going to do", Walker shared, "I heard all that stuff was
supported by Coke and I figured that with all the polar bears and 'Have a Coke
and a smile' stuff that people would just go along with everything."

As
far as correcting these mistakes, Walker points
to the new legislative session as an opportunity to reverse the damage done to Wisconsin."Now that we know about the errors in judgment
it should be pretty easy to simply repeal most of the things from the past
couple of years.I'm positive that my
fellow Republicans will go along with what I say, they're usually pretty
cooperative with my way of thinking,"Walker
predicted."I've decided that in
the future we will try and listen to a wider range of ideas before acting,
Maybe Pepsi offers political advice too?"

Finally, A Way to Measure Creativity…

National
testing company WATED (We Assess and Test Everything for Dough), announced a
new test that will measure student creativity and artistic ability.The test fully aligns with Common Core
standards and will allow school districts to not only create student creativity
profiles, but will also allow employers to effectively measure the productivity
and hold educators who don't teach specific academic subjects accountable for
student achievement in creative endeavors.

The
test is administered on a computer and asks students to observe and answer
questions about different images.Student answers form a pattern on a ScanTron sheet which is then
evaluated by company employees for aesthetic value."We realize that there is some subjectivity
to this process, but our experts are really good at noticing good art," a
company press release stated.A second
portion of the test asks students to listen to musical selections.Their answers (with choices A-G) are then put
on a musical staff and the tune is assessed by WATED employees.

WATED
is also looking into developing tests for students physical fitness in order to
effectively assess Physical Education teachers.So far these tests are proving to be more costly, and thus less
attractive to school districts, due to the added expense of specially designed
chairs that will be needed for the endurance portion of the test.

Study Released, Teachers Are Taxpayers…

After
two years of intensive study a bi-partisan legislative task has arrived at the
conclusion that teachers and other public employees do pay taxes.Senator Glenn Grothman (R) spoke for his
party's representatives on the task force and stated, "We were stunned to
find out that public employees and public educators are taxpayers and
apparently contribute to our state's economy in some meaningful way.Up to this point we (GOP legislators and
Governor Walker) were convinced that we only needed to represent people who
didn't "work" in the public sector or for some non-profit agency that
helps people."

Governor
Walker's office released a short statement expressing their amazement that this
information could have eluded them for so long.In the statement Governor Walker expressed concern that this revelation
will "impact the way we do business here in Wisconsin".His office admitted that up until this study
was released they had been operating under the assumption that everything they
had heard about public employees being "lazy and a drain on the
economy" was true."Now we
have to rethink our positions and attempt to represent the interests of a whole
new group of taxpayers, that's going to be a lot of work!"

Balancing
Act…

The
buzzword here in Wisconsin
for the past two years has been balance, as in balance the budget at any cost.However, recent economic information has come
to light that, while a balanced budget is important, the way the balancing is
carried out matters as much as the balancing itself.Economists across Wisconsin
came together at a recent convention and discussed Wisconsin's budget and economic woes.

They
concluded that the reason any government entity collects revenue from its
citizens is to provide services, protection and stability for those who live in
its jurisdiction.In a press release the
economists expressed the belief that, "Any budget created at any level
should keep the bottom line in mind.However, when balancing a budget the needs of all citizens must be
considered."The group also
recognized that citizens who are able to meet their basic needs are more
productive and work to improve society as a whole instead of struggling to
barely get by.

One
economist even noted that protecting the environment must be a consideration as
well, even if it sometimes takes away from tax revenue or the expansion of
business."On day 3 of the
convention I went outside and noticed just how beautiful Wisconsin's outdoors really are," the
economist said."That got me
thinking that sometimes money isn't the only thing that matters when we talk
about fiscal concerns.If we don't have
a good environment to live in, then I guess all the money in the world won't
really matter a lot, will it?"

Policies Have Consequences…

The U.S. Department of Education today released
results of a comprehensive study that has determined that policies enacted at
any level of government frequently have an impact on students in classrooms
across America.The study concluded that policies from the
Federal level (No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top) have had an impact on
school districts and classrooms in all 50 states.The study states, "Apparently the
testing requirements and the consequences attached to them have created an
environment that has led to less actual time to teach and more time spent
testing."

An unnamed source in the Department of Education
said, "We were shocked to hear that our work here in Washington is undermining our public
schools' credibility and ability to educate students.We really just thought that making educators
accountable would be a popular idea and several companies said they had a great
way to do this."

Administrators, school boards and state level heads
of education have been notified that their actions and policies also impact the
schools in their states and districts.According to the study ideas that originate in places outside of schools
often have significant consequences when implemented in classrooms."What sounds like a good idea in a
conference room, or in a committee, frequently looks different when educators
in schools are forced to put the policy or procedure into practice," the
study states.

A conservative school reform group, TEST (Truth in
Education Starts with Testing) said that they have mixed feelings about this
discovery by educational bureaucrats."We've know for a long time exactly what we wanted to happen when
policies like NCLB and RttT were enacted.We were just hoping that the politicians would continue to think that
they were improving public education and would continue to promote policies
that we support," spokesperson for the group, Ivanna T'est Moore
said.

School Cited for Violating Child Labor Laws…

In a strange and unusual development a private
charter school in Wisconsin
was cited for violation of Child Labor Laws.The list of violations was long and included the school's use of
children to run a school store that sold products made in the school's shop and
home economics classes.According to the
report filed earlier today, students worked up to 14 hours a day making and
selling products with the profits being used to fund the school's publicity
department and to pay administrative costs.Students were also required to perform maintenance and custodial tasks
around the school.

School officials protested the allegations saying
that they were providing an excellent curriculum that prepared students for
career paths in manufacturing and retail careers."Our test scores and productivity were
off the charts when you compare us to the public schools that coddle
children," stated a school spokesperson."We don't see why we should be penalized when we are simply doing
what the job creators of Wisconsin
want educational entities to do."

When asked if students were exposed to higher order
thinking, creative problem solving or the arts school officials responded by
defending their curriculum."There's a lot to be said for learning to follow instructions and
performing rote tasks.When we saw a
student with potential they would be promoted to shift manager and had the
potential to advance even farther in our school's hierarchy," school
officials noted.

The complaint was filed after customers began
receiving slips of paper mixed in with their change saying, "Support Our
School's Effort to Unionize!"Apparently students had been attempting to organize for the past several
months and were meeting with resistance from school administration.One customer who is named in the complaint
stated, "It seemed a little odd.At
first I thought it was some sort of school project for the kids, but the look
of fear on the cashier's face when I read the note while a teacher was nearby
seemed way too realistic.I figured
either the kid was a great actor or they were really terrified so I thought I
should at least have someone check it out."

Sometimes Truth is Stranger than
Fiction

Seriously?!?!…

We are constantly hearing
conservatives say that we should be running our schools, public services and
government like a business.Well, when
an organization that works to help public employees like the SWIB makes a sound
business decision the conservatives sure aren't happy about it.However, I can't think of one good reason why
we should be giving any state employee pension money to an entity like the WEDC
that has been so mismanaged and that hasn't demonstrated any measurable level
of competence in handling financial matters.

What is frightening to
public employees in Wisconsin
is the obvious reality that our Governor not only wants us to pay more into our
pension fund, but that he wants to be able to access the money that we
contribute.

A strong school district
needs strong leadership to help support educators and implement quality
policies district wide.For the past
months the search has been on for candidates to take over the reins of the Madison Public Schools.This past week saw a flurry of activity as
the Madison Board of Education worked earnestly to narrow the field of
candidates down.

Thursday night Dr.
Jennifer Cheatham was in front of a good sized crowd (considering the weather
conditions outside) and answered many pointed questions about her record, her
philosophy and her plans for Madison's
Public School System.

Much has been made about
the process and questions have been raised about the way that candidates were
selected.In additions there are some
issues and concerns that supporters of public education have about Dr.
Cheatham's record and associations with "reform" groups.

My major concerns at this
point about Dr. Cheatham's record and philosophy center around some of her
comments made on Thursday.I must admit
that I have no direct information or experience with her, just what is
available on the internet, what has been shared by fellow educators, information
released by MMSD and Dr. Cheatham's answers at the Thursday night forum.

Overall she made a favorable
impression and seemed very knowledgeable and confident.Many of her answers resonated with me and
made me feel hopeful for the future in the MMSD.However, a couple of things stood out to me.

-She used the term
"agnostic" to express her thinking about private schools.For me our superintendent needs to be the
biggest advocate possible for public education.This means that any reforms to public education, or use of public money
should be only in the best interest of public education.Private schools, private charter schools and
any other educational venture on the privatization spectrum needs to be kept
separate from public school funding and must be accountable for the same
standards that public schools are held to.

-Much was made of the fact
that she said she wouldn't increase the school day, but I heard her say that
she didn't know enough about MMSD to say whether that would be a positive
option.Perhaps a subtle difference, but
a difference none the less.She also
never answered the question about increasing educator pay if changes were made
in hours worked.

-It is still unclear to me
just how positive and benevolent her relationship with educators in Chicago was.I'm hopeful that she operates in the manner
she described at the forum, but time will tell.

It is sad that we are in
such a state of mistrust and suspicion.It takes a lot to make public educators so pessimistic about
anything.Remember, we are people who spend
every minute of our day thinking about ways to get our most challenged students
to succeed and view every day as a new one.I wonder what our opinions of Dr. Cheatham would be had the assaults on
public education not been so intense over the past two years.

One topic that she
addressed that I found to be very positive was the idea of empowering
principals and educators to work together in their buildings to make positive
change happen.This sounds a lot like
the joint venture that MTI and MMSD have been working on for the past couple of
years to reduce the number of grievances filed and to promote positive
relationships between administration and staff.I hope that she follows through on her words and supports these ideas
with action.

In the end these questions
had little impact on the final decisions made by the Board of Education.We are left with our uncertainties, but also
with a need to trust in the selection and in our elected representatives and
work to make Dr. Cheatham's tenure as MMSD Superintendent a successful one.No one person will be responsible for the
future success of our district, we all are accountable for creating a district
that serves every student well.